AML 1/72 North American O-47A

AML 1:72 NORTH AMERICAN 0-47A

Reviewer: Paul Wherran (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 10 June 2006

Kit Details:

North American O-47A, American observation plane, manufactured by AML in 1/72, limited run kit

Aircraft History:

(Sorry, I ripped Derrick Winters comments to save time here) The O-47 was an advanced observation plane that first flew in 1935 but was outdated by the time America entered the second world war. It was generally used for maritime patrols along the US coastline for spotting submarines and other ships that were expected to be coming from the Imperial Japanese Navy. The crew could consist of the pilot, rear gunner and observer. The O-47 was the forerunner to the T-6 Texan family so played an important part in the Texan's development.

The Kit:

There are 50 limited run injection molded parts on one sprue plus 25 etched parts and 6 vacform clear. The short run plastic requires typical work for a limited run kit with thick attachment lugs, no locating pins and the mating surfaces needing some thinning down. There is a bit of flash and ejector pin stubs to remove. Surface detail is adequate and engraved into the plastic.

Instructions:

Two A4 sheets are folded into an 8 paged A5 sized booklet with the usual fanfare of brief history, sprue map, ten assembly steps, three-view decal placement diagram and also a colour artwork for markings on the bottom of the box.

Construction:

As with all limited run kits of this type, you start off every assembly process with a thorough clean up of the parts which means removing flash, ejector pin marks and rubbing the mating surfaces down for a flush fit later. Also, the parts are cut carefully from the sprue and the leftover lug removed just as carefully. A comprehensive array of dry fit testing is also carried out and trimming, filling and sanding done so parts fit as they should. Without this preparation you would have a tough time successfully and sanely building this kit. So, even though I barely mention this for the rest of this report, assume I undertook this process for each and every sub-assembly!

The cockpit is well covered with sidewall molding, plastic floor, seat and stick plus some small etched stuff and an acetate film instrument panel. Similarly detailed in the rear cockpit. The main issues here are getting the floors and bulkheads for both cockpit areas affixed properly since the instructions don't provide much positioning assistance. Add to this oversized parts compared to the fuselage halves and it is a significant challenge straight up! Dare I say, do plenty of test fitting and proportionate trimming to make sure it all fits! Then of course there are huge ejector pin stubs to remove from the fuselage interior. Seats are added into the belly section and some scratchbuilt parts to get the cockpit and observers stations up to speed. I followed the suggested Humbrol paint callouts for the interior and it is obviously worth spending some time in this area because of the large clear glazing to be added later, so the deck between the two upper cockpits were painted accordingly. Overall a fiddly, fairly hard working but achievable sub assembly to tackle.

Moving onto the fuselage halves, once everything was trimmed and fitted inside accordingly, they went together without any real fanfare but needed some clamps to keep them shut.

The main wings needed a serious amount of sanding at the mating surfaces to prepare them for affixing to the model. I found out pretty quickly that achieving a really good fit here was going to be challenging. I have read Derrick's review and noted he added the upper wing halves first to the fuselage, but I didn't find this was going to work so well for me. I made up the sub assembly of the main wing with lots of checking and test fitting before it fit fairly snugly onto the fuselage with a minor amount of filling at the roots, and the aft and fore belly section of the underwing piece. The wings are thick so the trailing edges needed also a good thinning out. The tailplanes were added without much fanfare being butt joined and carefully positioned to dry at the correct angle. This section slowed construction down due to drying time.

The next stage for me was to add in the lower observers windows. Now I must say that this is a part of the kit you have to do well, and to it well the first time. There really is total inadequacy in the instructions for covering this part, so the windows have to be carefully cut from the vacform sheet (unlike the canopy, you only get one of each) and carefully fitted into the lower wing sections. I didn't have any decent reference photos, which would have been very handy here. And of course test fit first a number of times and make the appropriate hobby knife carvings/adjustments to get the windows in flush. Be patient!

The engine was added next by fitting it into the cowling, but again some slight trimming and test fitting is needed here. The engine cylinder block is probably fairly typical for short run kits nowadays but still looks much better than you get on a lot of mainstream kits of similar sized aircraft. The usual methods of dark gunmetal grey with a bit of black wash were used to accentuate the engine interior. Fitting the cowling to the nose of the aircraft was a bit troublesome but nothing too much that most modellers couldn't get to fit nicely. The props were sub assembled and painted and superglued onto the shaft after the model was completely built and painted.

The main canopy is one-piece, but as is often practice in these short run kits, AML provide a spare - even now going back to those first MPM kits that had spare vacform canopies it is something so "small" yet something so appreciated by us modellers, at what is obviously a very minor extra expense. I am still very pleased to find that this practice has continued mostly in these types of kits. What this allows you to do is of course experiment a little on one and be confident that if you get it wrong, you have another one to try out. Against my moral feelings but in line with my better judgement (on cutting up a vacform canopy) I took the easy option of glueing the one-piece canopy straight onto the kit. The only thing to point out here though is to make sure that if you super glue in the etched machine gun part, that it is done in such a way so you can fit the canopy! Of course, if you are more adventurous then you can perform a bit of surgery and organise for an open canopy and/or rear observation deck to also be displayed open. I've built a few short run kits now so the vacform canopy went on without any fanfare (I see I have used that word again!!) and does give you a good look at what is inside.

From here it is just the undercarriage that needs to be fitted and I think the best way to summarise this is that it was typical of short run kits, a bit of test fitting, trimming, butt-joining and superglue to have everything fitting nicely. Of course a jig under the wings holding the model up off the workbench is needed to ensure the legs dry at the correct angles so it sits properly on the tabletop surface later. I did find the tailwheel a bit troublesome to fit, but again, nothing that any modeller with a few limited run kits under their belts can't overcome. There is a little bit of plumbing and generic detail in the wheel wells that was spruced up a bit. I wasn't sure if my kit also had the slightly aft starboard wheel setting or not, that Derrick picked up in his review. That will be an individual call I think or perhaps mine fitted better in its place than his? Finally the etched parts provide a few bits of aerials and what-not on the outside, although any wire antennae has to be rigged and scratchbuilt by the modeller with invisible thread, or something similar.

Colour Schemes:

The boxart USAAF 1942 based in the Philippines is the only decal option for the kit which is Olive drab over neutral grey and I simply used the Humbrol numbers quoted to paint it. A gloss cote was given in preparation for receiving decals. The frame lines on the canopy were the most difficult area to paint.

Decals:

On paper the decals looked sharp, in register and thin - all the ingredients of a good decal sheet that is often found in limited run kits, and produced by Propagteam. They all went onto the model surface very well although they like to stick in place as soon as they apply, and don't give them too much soaking time or you will have adhesive and curling to deal with, and possible disintegration. My only complaint was that the USAAF roundel had white edges, so the blue circle was off centre, but this was easily overcome by applying some better decals from the spares box. Definitely best to replace these.

Accuracy:

Dimensions are spot on and overall it looks very much like an O-47A from the limited reference material I have. However, I share the same view as Derrick in that the profile did appear a bit bloated and there just does not seem to be a totally accurate canopy supplied, it looks far too tall on top of the fuselage and just doesn't look right at all.

Overall Recommendation:

Clearly this is a kit that demands the skills of at least an intermediate modeller to put together and even then, one who has assembled a few other limited run kits in the past. A lot of preparation needs to go into your project before each sub assembly and there needs to be a lot of care taken to study the instructions and reference photos and undertake the usual test fit and trim to fit routine. It is certainly an enjoyable project for those who do like getting their hands dirty and having a bit of a challenge ahead of them. It produces a fine, if a little bloated and oversized glazing, finished product of an obscure and often overlooked important stepping stone for North American that ultimately let to the development of the Texan. I must say that in spite of the few vices I mentioned, I would still give this kit a high recommendation.

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